Highlights

The first phase of the bullet train project will be completed by 2023.

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The total cost of the project is Rs 98,000 crore.

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20 per cent of project cost will be shared equally by Centre, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The Maharashtra government has offered land in Dharavi and not in Bandra-Kurla Complex or BKC (as asked by the Centre) for the 508-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, a dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Transport Minister Diwakar Raote informed the legislative council on Friday that the state government had informed the Centre that it needed 0.9 hectares of plot of land at the BKC for its International Finance Service Center (IFSC). He said the Centre could consider the land available in Dharavi for the project.

Raote added that as far as the second bullet train route between Mumbai and Kolkata was concerned, the state had recommended to the Centre to consider the route to pass through Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati and Nagpur. A Spanish company has been asked to prepare the feasibility report for the project.

Replying to a debate started by Sanjay Dutt of the Congress, Raote stated that the first phase of the project would be completed by 2023. The total cost of the project is Rs 98,000 crore. He said that 80 per cent of the project cost was in a loan form from Japan. The rest of the 20 per cent cost was to be shared equally among the Centre, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

BACKWARD DISTRICTS LIKE PALGHAR TO FALL ON BULLET TRAIN ROUTE

Raote went on to say, “The loan is for 50 years. For the first 10 years, there shall be no repayment of the loan. The state shall have to bear the Rs 125 crore share for the project. There will be four stations of the route in Maharashtra. A part of the route passes through backward districts like Palghar, where industrial development is needed. A port is under development close to the route.”

The Transport Minister said that the parking for the bullet train project would be underground as would be the Mumbai-Thane segment of the route. “The project would require less land to be acquired in the state. Since it is a government project, only government land will be needed for acquisition purpose. The ground-breaking ceremony of the project is to be held in September next month”, Raote said.

Dutt had argued that the project cost would shoot up to Rs 1,40,000 crore due to the delay. He added that the purpose of the Centre’s insisting on the BKC plot of land was to affect the state’s IFSC project.